Her Journey
by Decimus Gerard
Summary: The tale of a girl who is whisked away from home at a young age and sent to a boarding school far away. After a series of events start to rouse her curiosity about her childhood, she embarks on a forbidden journey to try and uncover her dark hidden past


Prologue

The small girl clutched at her mother with shattering desperation. They were standing on a long empty platform, with nobody for company except for the birds. All of the other children had been sent away long before, but none had parted with such grief as this.

"But I don't want to leave you mama." Said the girl, her eyes sparkling with tears. The woman looked at her daughter with a broken heart and pulled her close in a tight embrace.

"My darling," she said, staying strong for her daughter's sake and fighting to hold back tears of her own. "Everything will turn out for the best, I promise you."

"If that's true then why can't I stay here?" implored the girl. Her mother said nothing, but simply looked despairingly to the floor of the platform. "Why can't I go to school _here_?"

"You know why my dear." Her mother said with the warmest of words. "The council decreed that all children have to be evacuated. I've kept you here for as long as I possibly can, but it's too dangerous now. The war is closer than it ever has been before." At hearing the poorly masked distress in her mother's voice, the girl could hold back her fountain of tears no longer, and wept long and hard into her mother's bosom.

"Will I ever see you again?" she sobbed after several minutes, taking much comfort in her mother's soft black curls.

"Of course! We shall be reunited. Don't cry. I'll always love you, remember that." The woman reassured, but her voice cracked as she spoke. She couldn't be sure how much her beloved child truly knew, but when they broke from their embrace her daughter smiled at her with such austerity that it made her heart choke.

"I'll love you always mama." The girl said, drinking in everything about her mother; her beautiful long black curls, and her gorgeous swirling eyes, both of which she felt privileged to have inherited. "And I'll come back to fetch you one day. And Papa too, when he returns from the crusades."

The grief-stricken woman said nothing, but simply held her daughter tight by the hands. She looked deep into her swirling eyes, dark but vibrant with many colours, which, as she knew, became most prominent with deep and passionate sadness. She felt a pang of guilt, and only hoped that her daughter would never know the real truth. At that moment, the woman could hold back no longer and her tears broke into two seemingly endless waterfalls down her pale cheeks. At the sight of her mother crying, the girl pulled her into a final tight embrace. It was warm and comforting in a way that only a mother's hug can feel, and they both hoped it would never end. But all too soon, it did.

"Now, come on," Her mother smiled sadly, wiping her eyes. "Wipe those tears!"

"I'll miss you mama," said the girl, picking up her suitcase. She had wiped her tears as her mother had asked, but she was far from ready to stop crying.

"Now, now," said her mother, doing her best to pull herself together. She straightened her daughter's collar, and wiped her face lovingly with a handkerchief. Normally the girl would have hated this, but now she craved it. Her mother tucked the perfumed handkerchief into the girl's top pocket, and gave it a firm but meaningful touch. "None of that! You hear? And be good for Miss Fairfax. She'll be there to meet you when you arrive."

"I will mama. I'll make you proud, I promise." Said the girl.

"My darling," she sighed with a look of the dearest love in her eyes. "I'm already proud. And I _always_ will be." She took a step back to take one last look at her only child, and prayed that she didn't know that this was the last time they would ever see each other.

"I love you mama."

"I love you too, my sweet beautiful girl." She choked. She then paused, ruffling her brow as if choking for a moment on a hard piece of toast, and then kissed her daughter on the cheek with a tenderness that the girl had never felt before, to the point where it almost frightened her. The girl gave her mother a simple peck on the cheek, hoping only that it could come close to showing how much she loved her. Then for a moment she seemed a little bewildered.

"But _where_ do I go mama?" she asked, perplexed. Her mother said nothing, but simply closed her eyes for a moment, concentrating on something. Before the confused girl could speak again, her mother opened her eyes suddenly at which point they seemed to flash momentarily. Behind her, the girl felt a sudden rush of wind and when she turned around, an entrance stood there where there had simply been thin air before.

"Now off you go! And don't look back, it'll make it easier. Don't be scared." The girl smiled at her mother one last time and turned nervously towards the entrance, knowing that she mustn't turn back, but unsure if it was to make it easier for herself or her mother.

And with that, she sucked in large breath and ran through the mysterious gateway into a world completely unknown to her, leaving her mother quite alone, crying mournfully on the cold bare platform.

CHAPTER ONE – INTO THE FURNACE

"For God's sake Graham, get up will you," came a yell up the stairs. "You'll be late for school again!"

"All right mum," Groaned Graham in a sleepy stupor.

"All right then love, I'm off to work. I'll be late back, so you'll have to get your own dinner."

Graham heard the front door slam, and then the gratifying crunch of gravel as the car pulled out of the driveway. He lay for a moment longer in bed and then, fighting the urge to fall back to sleep, pulled himself out of bed.

He crawled out from underneath his warm feather duvet, and pulled the heavy grey curtains across. Sunlight poured in through the steamed up windows, and he had to squint to see anything. As he opened his bedroom door, a refreshing rush of cold air came in, mixed with the warm sunshine, and played across his face. He went into the bathroom, and pulled on his school uniform.

Outside it was a crisp morning, the first that hinted the beginning of autumn. Graham loved living in the countryside. He thought it much better than living in a large city like London. Of course he did occasionally get bored, but that was rare, because he was always out with his friends. He strolled down the street towards school, and as he did every morning, met his friend Paul on the corner.

"Where the hell have you been?" said Paul, looking more than a little irritated.

"Overslept," Graham yawned. He wasn't very good at mornings. "Whatever, now hurry up or we'll be late."

"Chill. We won't be late."

"You say that every morning…" Paul muttered under his breath, and he hurried off ahead, leaving Graham to catch up.

By the time they reached the classroom, everybody else was already sitting down talking amongst themselves and waiting to be registered. Mr. Paige hadn't arrived yet, much to Paul's relief. Graham chucked his bag on the floor, took off his jacket, loosened his school tie and rolled up his sleeves. Paul went over and sat next to his girlfriend Amy.

Graham didn't much like Amy. She liked the sound of her own voice too much, and was constantly rolling up her skirt. She was pretty, but she knew it, and she treated Paul like crap; she dumped him at least twice a week over the most mundane things. Although he couldn't help but think that was partly Paul's fault for running back to her.

"Morning babe" said Paul, leaning in to give her a kiss. She snuffed his approach.

"I dumped you," She griped, crossing her arms, and turning back to talk to her group of girl friends. "In case you forgot."

"Oh babe," he pleaded. "I swear to God, I wasn't looking up her skirt!"

"You know what, Paul?" she said, suddenly turning to confront him. "I don't give a rat's arse if you were or not. Your problem is that you're spineless. And I haven't got time for spineless people."

"Are you _actually_ breaking up with me?" Paul asked, a disgustingly familiar look of worry on his face.

"You bet I am. I can't be bothered with it anymore Paul and I mean it for real this time." She turned away again, and Paul looked like he was about to cry. Graham jumped in, "Hang on a minute Amy," he said, immediately kicking himself for getting involved. "I'm sick of hearing you speak to him like that."

"And who are you?" she said, turning to glare at him through her blond bob. She raised her voice this time, and a large part of the class suddenly showed an interest. It wasn't often that Graham and Amy spoke to each other at all, let alone because Graham was defending Paul.

"You know damn well who I am Amy. And you're bang out of order."

"Gray…" Paul whispered. "What are ya doing?" Graham ignored his friend. He had spoken up now, there wasn't any point in shutting up this time.

"You have a go at Paul for the smallest things, but at the end of the day, it's _you_ who's the nasty piece of work." Amy looked completely unaffected.

"Whatever Graham." She said, putting her palm in his face and turning away again. A couple of her mates giggled quietly at this. She took a sip of her coffee and carried on talking to them.

"Tell him." Graham insisted, standing up and leaning towards her. "Tell him the real reason you're really breaking up with him." He said venomously. "Tell him," he said pointedly, "how I walked in on you kissing David Dale." The rest of the class was now on tenterhooks. This sort of confrontation and gossip was almost unheard of, but it was what people in school thrived on.

Amy stopped talking to her friends and turned slowly towards Graham. The look on her face wasn't one of resolve, but one of anger.

"You…you did what?" Paul said, he was on the verge of tears. She said nothing. "Graham?" he entreated.

"I'm sorry you had to find out like this." Graham said to his friend. "But I couldn't keep it to myself."

"But Gray…" said Paul feebly, visibly fighting back tears. "In front of everybody? Why would you do that?"

"Paul man, I'm sorry." Graham said. And he genuinely was sorry. But he couldn't stand to see his mate being treated so badly, and particularly not by someone like Amy. He was about to continue before he heard a voice behind him.

"Graham." Amy spat.

"What do you want?" he shot back as he turned round. But as he turned he saw that she was holding her plastic cup of coffee ready to launch it over him. He ducked as she threw the cup, and not a second too late. The coffee went clean over his head, and from behind him came a scream of pain.

Everyone looked around to see that the quietest girl in the class, who had been minding her own business reading a book, had been drenched in boiling hot coffee.

"Oh!" gasped Amy. She was horrified. Graham also looked on in shock. Ben Redford in the row behind them thought fast and grabbed a bottle of water from his bag. He pulled off the lid and drenched the poor screaming girl in water. Her scream immediately turned to a gasp, and as water cascaded from her hair and blouse, her gasp turned to a whimper. A few people stifled uncomfortable laughs, and with that she gave both Amy and Graham an angry glare before running out of the classroom.

"Nice going." Graham said, glaring at Amy. She said nothing, but sat down guiltily just in time for Mr. Paige to walk into the classroom.

"Morning everyone." He said mechanically.

"Morning Sir." They all said, quickly returning their attention to the front of the class, a couple of the girls in the back row giggling quietly. Mr. Paige observed them all with a brief moment of uncertainty, and evidently deciding that whatever had just occurred was not worth asking about, began reading out the register.

"Paul. Are you ok?" Graham whispered.

"I…uh…" Paul choked.

"Arnold." Mr. Paige called.

"Here sir." Paul stuttered.

"I'm so sorry. Please don't be mad at me."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Paul asked angrily.

"It only happened a couple of days ago man. I should…"

"Banks!" called Mr. Paige.

"Here sir," Graham said automatically, before continuing. "I'm sorry Paul, I should have told you when it happened, but it was only a couple of days ago. I didn't want to say anything in case she ended it with you anyway. I didn't think you needed to know."

"You should have told me Gray." Paul said. Graham felt awful, but was glad that Mr. Paige was in the room, feeling sure that Paul's reaction would have been a lot more violent without the watchful eye of a staff member in the room. His friend seemed positively heartbroken. He didn't know what to say after that, so they just sat in silence whilst Mr. Paige finished off the register.

"Redford!"

"Here sir."

"Shaw!"

"Here."

"Smith." Mr. Paige called. No response. "Smith?" he called again.

"She's just gone to the toilet sir." Said Ben Redford, flashing a dirty look in Amy's direction. "She…uh…spilt something down her."

"I'm sure she could have waited five minutes." Mr. Paige muttered, finishing off the register. "Right you lot, get off to first period. I'll see you after lunch."

Everyone got up, grabbed their bags and swiftly headed off to their first lesson. Graham had a free period, so there was no rush to get out of the room. He left the classroom just after the bell rang to mark the start of first period.

Just as he reached the door at the end of the corridor, it opened in front of him to reveal Amy who had obviously forgotten a book for her first lesson. She gave him the filthiest look she could muster.

"That was out of order Gray." She said, glaring at him.

"_You're_ out of order, Tucker." He spat, knowing how much she hated being referred to by her surname.

"Where do you get off thinking you can ruin people's lives like that?" she snapped. "Is it just some kind of power trip for you to upset your friends like that? You know that telling Paul about David Dale was completely uncalled for." Graham couldn't believe how she was suddenly turning this around on him. He was livid.

"You… you what?" he said incredulously. "Are you joking?" In way of an answer, she simply stared at him angrily. At that moment the poor coffee drenched girl came through the door to collect her books from the classroom, and bumped into Amy.

"Oh." Said the girl, flashing Amy a filthy look. "It's you." She had obviously been in the girl's toilets drying her shirt under the hand dryer, because her shirt had a large, but now dry, coffee stain all down the front.

"I'm SO sorry." Said Amy. She seemed genuinely upset. "I wasn't aiming for you at all, and I'm so sorry that I got you."

"Well in that case, it' just fine then." Said the girl, she was clearly very annoyed.

"Are you ok?" Amy asked.

"I'm fine thanks." She replied with a glare. "I'll live anyway."

"I'm just so sorry it hit you." Amy said genuinely. "I was aiming for this loser." She said, indicating Graham. At that moment, for some reason, something in Graham snapped. In a split second between anger and rationality, he grabbed Amy's hand and pushed it onto the nearby fire alarm. The second he heard the ringing of the alarm in his ears, he let go.

"What are you doing?" the girl gasped.

"I…I…" stammered Graham. He had no idea why he had done what he had just done.

"What are you thinking?!" Amy yelled over the cacophony of the fire alarm. But before he could reply the deputy headmaster appeared, as though from thin air, and ran up the corridor to stumble upon them.

"What the hell are you lot playing at?" shouted Mr. Furnace at the top of his voice. Graham, Amy and the coffee girl all stood there in terror (for the deputy head was incredibly fiery by nature, not just by name) "Who set that off?" he demanded. Nobody answered. "Don't make me ask again."

Nobody said anything.

"You're aware of the health and safety issues of setting off the fire alarm, I assume?" he said sternly, staring them all out to try and gauge their reactions. Still, nobody said anything; they all simply stared at the floor. "You three outside, NOW. Follow the usual fire drill procedure, and line up with your classmates. I want to see you _all_ in my office first thing after school. And I'll automatically suspend any one of you who isn't there at three-fifty on the dot." He gave them all one more scornful look before escorting them outside and up the stairs out of the basement corridor that they were in.

"Nice going Graham." Said Amy as Mr. Furnace left them to go and switch off the fire alarm. "We'll be lucky not to get suspended for that." Graham ignored her.

"Thanks for not dobbing me in." he said quietly to the girl as she walked past him.

"I didn't need to." She said with a glare. Graham knew she was right. Mr. Furnace had an uncanny knack for catching people out; it was almost as though he had eyes in the back of his head. So chances were that he already knew that Graham was the culprit. He pondered his chances as they walked off across the quad to meet the rest of their class.

That afternoon Amy arrived early outside Mr. Furnace's office, as she was hoping to catch the Deputy Head alone in order to explain that it had all been Graham's fault. However, he was on a conference call in his office so his receptionist had made her wait anyway. She was furious with Graham for being such an irresponsible idiot. She probably felt more angry with him than she should have, but only because she felt guilty for throwing her coffee over the quiet girl in their class. If it had been anyone else she probably could have dealt with it, but it was just Amy's luck that it should land over the one person that _nobody_ ever spoke to.

The girl had joined the school about four years ago as a border, and she kept herself to herself. Amy always thought she might look quite pretty if she bothered to try and make herself look any good. Her frizzy black hair was always tied back in a pony tail, but it had the potential to be gorgeous if she let it down once in a while. Her eyes were a dull grey, but a little bit of mascara would remedy that. Amy thought maybe she should treat her to a makeover to make up for the coffee incident. As her thoughts drifted off to make up and hair products that she wanted to buy, Graham came along. He said nothing but sat down fixedly beside her.

"You'd better explain yourself properly." She said, staring straight forward.

"Don't worry Amy, you'll get what you've got coming." Graham replied. She shot him a filthy look. They sat in silence for several minutes until Amy spoke.

"You do know that Paul never liked me anyway?" she said. "So whatever pathetic reasons you have for being so nasty are completely misguided. The only reason I kissed David was because Lucy told me that Katie's sister heard from _her _boyfriend that Brian saw Paul kissing Abigail Johnson in town."

"Oh well in that case. Since you have such a reliable source…" Graham replied sarcastically.

"It's true you know." She replied through gritted teeth. "Anyway, I don't even know why I'm justifying myself to _you_." Before Graham could respond, they saw in the distance a coffee stained shirt coming down the corridor towards them. They watched her walking towards them until she sat down on the spare seat between them, gave them both a brief but very withering look, and stuck her nose into a book on British history. They sat in awkward silence for a minute or two longer before the moment they had all been dreading arrived, and the door to the Deputy Headmaster's office opened.

"Graham, Amy, Justine." Mr. Furnace acknowledged grimly, his furrowed brow wrinkling at each of them in turn. "Come in."

Despite being a strong disciplinarian, Mr. Furnace rarely called students to his office, so what they witnessed had rarely been seen. The first thing that struck them all was the temperature of the room. It was horribly humid. The cause of the humidity soon became clear, when they noticed the huge amount of plants in the room. It was more like a jungle than a deputy headmaster's office. They could barely see the wall through the foliage; plants were on every available surface except for his desk. His desk, in fact, was remarkably bare. It had on it only a large crystal glass of water, a telephone, a pen and their permanent records. There wasn't even a computer or pictures of his family on the desk, or anywhere else in the room for that matter.

Since so few people were called to Mr. Furnace's office, and since most of those people were usually never seen at school again, the three of them felt more nervous than they usually would when being called to see a teacher.

"Take a seat, please." Mr Furnace said, indicating three chairs in front of his desk. The three of them sat down quietly and looked nervously towards the floor. He slowly sat down in a weathered red leather armchair, put his arms down on the surface and interlocked his long bony fingers. They sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity. Amy was the first one brave enough to say anything.

"Sir, I…"

"Silence!" he commanded. He spoke with such force that Amy immediately stopped dead in her tracks. He looked at them all very carefully, taking his time on each one of them. Through his narrowed eyes, a pair of bright eyes twinkled. "I don't need to hear your pathetic excuses Miss Tucker" he spat. "All I want to know is who set off the fire alarm. Miss Smith?"

"I don't know sir." Justine replied quickly but calmly. Amy and Graham could hardly believe their ears. Why had she covered for them? They didn't have time to dwell on this however, as Mr. Furnace now turned to Amy.

"Miss Tucker?" he said with a penetrating gaze. Amy had been so sure she would tell him everything that she had even planned what to say (obviously with the intention of incriminating Graham as much as possible), but now that Justine had decided to cover for Graham, she didn't feel she could leave her by herself. After throwing coffee all over her, standing by the poor girl was the least she could do.

"I…" she could hardly believe she was doing this… "I…don't know sir." Graham's jaw practically hit the floor. Justine covering his back was one thing, but _Amy_? All attempts to play ignorant fled his mind as he reeled in amazement.

"Mr. Banks, I assume this means you've conveniently forgotten as well?" Mr. Furnace asked, turning to Graham. His tone of voice was soft, but he looked at Graham with his most penetrating stare yet. His long fingers remained interlocked across his desk, and he seemed completely relaxed. However, even though he was visibly still, there was something about him which seemed to quiver with an intense ferocity. Graham looked away from the girls and directly into Mr. Furnace's eyes.

It was then that he was suddenly struck with the realisation that Mr. Furnace knew exactly who had set off the alarm. He was just toying with them.

"No sir." Graham responded miserably. "I do know who set off the alarm."

"Oh?" Mr. Furnace asked with an almost imperceptible hint of disappointment. They all sat with baited breath.

"It was me." Graham said with a sigh.

"Oh!" said Mr. Furnace with mock astonishment. His disappointment appeared to have vanished and his thin grey lips curled up at the sides. "Somebody who's memory hasn't lapsed. How helpful."

"The others had nothing to do with it." Graham added. Amy and Justine remained silent.

"I know they didn't Mr. Banks." Furnace replied. "You're rather lucky you owned up, I was about to suspend you all."

Graham and Amy breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you sir." Amy sighed.

"What for?" he snapped. "I'm not done with you yet Miss Tucker. Mr. Banks, detention every Friday after school for the rest of the term." Graham cringed. It could have been worse he supposed. "And for lying to me," Mr. Furnace continued, looking towards Amy and Justine. "The same punishment." A cruel grin crept over his face once again.

"What?" Amy yelped. "But that's not fair!"

"Thank your lucky stars Miss Tucker," Furnace interrupted her sternly, "that you're not suspended."

"That's not…" Amy said pathetically. But she trailed off. It wasn't fair, but he was right. They could have come off a lot worse.

"Dismissed." He said with such sudden and unexpected volume that they all jumped out of their seats. They walked past the many plants and with a little difficulty Amy pulled open the heavy wooden door to the corridor. She could feel Mr. Furnace's eyes burning into the back of her head. She didn't think she'd ever been so happy to be back in the real world, even if she was still at school. Anywhere was better than Mr. Furnace's stuffy office.

Once Graham had closed the deputy headmaster's door, they all walked out of the building in silence. The moment they got outside, Graham turned to Justine.

"Thanks Justine. You didn't need to do that." He said.

"No you're right." She said coldly. "I didn't."

"And before you thank me too," Amy said quickly, "I didn't do it for you, I did it for Justine. Sorry about the coffee Justine."

"Seriously, stop going on about it." Justine said. For the quiet girl in the class she certainly had a fiery temperament.

"Who says I was going to thank you?" Graham interrupted.

"You have to be kidding right?" Amy asked.

"Hell no, why should I be kidding? You didn't do anything to help, we all still got detention didn't we?"

"In case you hadn't noticed, me and Justine have detention too because we covered for you!" Amy growled.

"Yeah well," Graham said awkwardly. "You know what Furnace is like, if you'd told him you'd have probably got detention for being a snitch anyway." Amy was livid again.

"You're…You're…infuriating!" she snarled.

"He's a boy." Justine added with a wry grin. They both turned to look at her, shocked that this apparently quiet character had such grit to her. As she turned to leave she called over her shoulder, "See you both after school tomorrow!"

Amy and Graham watched her walk away and then turned to look at one another. They were both angry at each other again, but Justine had completely deflated their argument.

"Get outta my way." Amy said, settling with giving Graham a good push as she walked past him. Graham glared and walked off in the opposite direction.


End file.
